I’m hanging a wreath now. Two, actually. Bah humbug. I gave up on trees. I put the important decorations from years past on the big wreath above the fireplace. I’m working on printing off tiny pictures of family that I bought tiny frames for at a craft shop, and I’ll hang those from the wreath too.

The blow-up ones and the really easy ones where all they did was hang a couple of lighted globes, stick some lighted candy canes in the ground, and call it done. I mean, I get it, I just don’t award any points for it.

Having said that, I’m soooo looking forward to going to the nursery in a couple of days where they all the pre-designed Xmas trees. So pretty.

@Dutchess_III: It’s something that bored, drunk godless kids do on Xmas Eve or New Year’s Eve if displays are still up. Bad kids, the kind who charge .25 cents a square for toilet paper to the porta poties on Orange Grove Blvd for Rose Parade watchers ;p

I don’t like the big inflatable decorations either. One year my mother-in-law got one and set it up in our yard as a surprise…but not as a joke. Luckily it was damaged in a wind storm after only a couple of days so we had to get rid of it. :)

I like pretty holiday displays OR huge, crazy, tacky displays. We used to live down the street from a guy who decorated his house like Winter Wonderland On Crack. People would come from all over to gawk at the penguins and polar bears, the Santas and millions of lights, the elves and the big rotating merry-go-round. He went to a lot of trouble each year. Why, you might ask? Because it made his disabled daughter so happy.

We had the light-up reindeer and a little light up tree in our yard one year, and one morning when we woke up the reindeer were mating. Whoever arranged them that way was careful not to break any of the lights, and we got a good laugh out of it. Then the deer broke, and we never bothered to replace them. Now we just stick with a wreath on the door.

@MissAusten Yeah, that happened to my buck and doe one year. The neighborhood kids thought it was hilarious to have the buck mounting the doe every weekend. I never put them out again. I absolutely hate the blow ups and especially the huge green Grinch.

I don’t work alone, and we use a van so we can just leave the side door open to escape quickly and move on to the next house. :) We are very careful not to damage the deer, so we don’t see it as vandalism… just something to entertain us at 1 am when we can’t sleep. :D

I was disappointed in myself for not thinking of the possibility of arranging the deer in that manner before the kids got to it. Once was funny, every weekend would have been annoying.

I just decided to do this to our house this year. Instead of buying presents, we’re going to spend all of our money buying every single inflatable holiday display we can find in the state of CT. And maybe also NY and RI.

I’m with @JilltheTooth I love it all. I love the really pretty classic displays with greenery, red bows and white lights, but I also love what I like to call “freeform” displays.

That’s where you have a house that has one string of green lights that are blinking, another set of lights that are multi colored but not flashing, 2 a sets of red and white lights that blink on and off randomly, but not at the same time or speed, then you have some kind of a wreath on the door, a blow up on the lawn, a white lights reindeer, a plastic (lit from the inside nativity) scene from the 60’s, a bunch of those LED plastic candy canes lighting your path, some luminarias (mostly red, but some regular paper bag colored ones too) a plastic candle with a “flame” light bulb in the window, a tiny sleigh and reindeer on the roof, the windows of the house dusted with spray-on snow, and last but not least, a projector on the front lawn beaming falling snow flakes onto the garage door.

I like it all. This one coworker of my husband lives on a street that has the most outrageous tacky light displays on practically every other house in the community. My husband just can’t believe the ungapachka, but I love it. I think it is funny actually.

If I had to pick the big blow up thingies on the lawn are my least favorite I think.

I love all of ‘em. Especially the blue lights along the roofline. But I don’t see how anyone could do all that work and still be alive. I do a door wreath and a ceramic plug in tree a friend had made for me. But if I don’t get a new tree I’ll feel guilty.

I put no outdoor decorations out…I put up a tree inside as my 2 year old appears to find them exciting…someone has set up one of those tacky blow up manger scenes across the street I saw it last night….it looks comically tacky….large and bright…..I tried to flick my cigarette butt in its general direction but its still inflated this morning so I guess I missed

Could be neighbors complaining about the lights shining in the window? Or…maybe their afraid of a fire or something….which I think is silly. What’s the point of having a lit tree when it’s not lit when it’s dark?

@Dutchess_III Goodness no, but around here, I’m afraid there is a lot of competing decorations during the summer. One of my friends “theoretically invented” a product in which the fascia board (or the eves) on the front of your house would actually have a hidden compartment. Right after Xmas, the lights would just fold up into the compartment. That way, you don’t have to take them down, but they’re not in sight.

That’s a good idea! Also, a closet that you can slide the fully decorated tree in and out of every year! It would just look like a nice set of double doors, like a closet in which ever room you put the tree in!

TJBM is putting her house back together… O wait. sorry. i’m still half a asleep!!

@Dutchess_III Yes, wouldn’t that be marvelous to have a tree closet! My cousin moved out into the sticks, but was able to get this huge house for a decent price. She has one room that she calls her craft room, but it has this whole area that is just a present wrapping station. It’s awesome. It has a big flat table and a bunch of dowels to hold the rolls of wrapping paper, then there is tape and scissors and ribbons all easily accessible.